


Season of the Heart

by Nerdamongnerds



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Fake Identites, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Pen Pals, Sort Of, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 13:54:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16724649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdamongnerds/pseuds/Nerdamongnerds
Summary: Bucky and Steve have been pen pals for years, and now, finally, they are going to be in the same place at the same time and they both get to meet the person they've been writing to (and secretly in love with) for years, during the holidays! Everything is great! Or at least... it would have been if either of them had sent their actual pictures, instead of ones of their best friends.Oops?Based on the ABC Family Movie "Christmas in Boston"





	1. Chapter 1

_Happy anniversary! Fifteen years since we got assigned to be pen pals in fourth grade. I'd give us an A on this project, wouldn't you?_

 

_I'd give me an A. You I'd give maybe a B-. I really didn't need half as many details that you gave me about that trip to Florida ;)_

 

_Hahaha, Buck. Laugh it up. I have years of dirt on you too, you know._

 

_You're too much of a boy scout to do anything with it and you know it, Rogers. But yeah, you made a scared American Jewish kid in Russia feel less alone, and I can't thank you enough for that._

  
  
  
  


_Is it just me or are stores getting all christmassy earlier and earlier? I started hearing Jingle Bells before Halloween was even over. I know you're big into Christmas, but it just gets to be too much too early. Speaking of the holidays, any plans for Thanksgiving?_

 

_Not unless you count watching the parade and then possibly being dragged to the saddest work potluck dinner ever._

 

_Aww, are reporters bad cooks? I’ll send you some leftovers from my family's dinner._

_Well, we can’t all be engineers working for one of the best tech companies in the country._

_Yeah but you don't have to put up with Tony Stark._

_True. Anyway, I have to go, I'll talk to you tomorrow. ‘Til the end of the line._

_Til the end of the line._

  


Steve closed the email conversation with Bucky and went back to typing up the research he had done for the article Bruce was writing. Every time he tried to get assigned to do more than extra research or celebrity gossip, he was turned down, told he still needed to “pay his dues.” It was stupid, and definitely not why he went into journalism. He had been inspired by reporters like Woodward and Bernstein, speaking truth to power and calling out injustice, which was why he took the job with SHIELD News, which at the time was a respected newspaper, but in the years since went more into internet clickbait as print media declined. Maybe a few times a week they would publish a real story, and even more rarely they would be the ones to break one. All Steve wanted was the chance to prove himself, to work on an actual story.

“Rogers! Get in here!” he heard his editor, Alexander Pierce, call, and Steve tried to suppress his groan before getting up and going over.

“Yes sir?” he asked as politely as he could manage.

“What do you know about tech conferences? There’s one in D.C. soon, and I know you have a buddy who lives there so if we send you, we can save on a hotel. He’ll let you crash there for a week, right? ”

Steve bit back a comment about how it wasn’t that fair to just assume Sam would let Steve stay with him, and that Pierce was being a real jerk about this entire thing, but as much as he may have wanted to say it, the prospect of getting a real story of his own kept his mouth shut. “I know the conference you’re talking about, the 2018 Stark Holiday Expo. All the big companies are going to be there, along with people looking for the latest tech.”

Pierce nodded. “Exactly.” He tossed Steve a nondescript badge that said _Attendee_ , which the blonde caught easily. “You’re going, but not as press. People see a press badge, they either don’t want to talk to you, or really want to talk to you but only about what they want you to know. Get in there, do some digging find out some dirt. Hell, Tony Stark’s going to be there. If you  can’t find something out about him, maybe you’re in the wrong line of work.”

Steve’s eyes widened. Tony Stark? The CEO of Stark Industries and notorious playboy? He was going to this conference? Then that would mean... He opened his mouth to turn down the story when Pierce cut him off with a tone of finality.

“Your flight is Friday at noon.”

Well. Shit.

He knew there was going to be almost no way around letting Bucky know that he finally got a story and they would be in the same city for the first time, he told Bucky everything, and he always knew when Steve was hiding something. He’d get it out of him and then… then he’d want to meet.

… He needed to talk to Sam _right the fuck now._

  
°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆  


Bucky sat next to Clint on the plane to D.C., nervous as hell, his metal fingers tapping against his thigh. He had to tell him sooner or later, why he asked his friend to come along with him on this work trip. Clint was paying him no mind as he was amusing himself folding barf bags into surprisingly well crafted airplanes and flirting with their fellow passengers, both men and women. "Don't you have a girlfriend?" Bucky asked.

"Natasha and I have an understanding. We're not quite putting a label on it yet, but things are... open."

"Great. Meanwhile the only meaningful relationship I've ever had with anyone except for you two is on paper," Bucky grumbled under his breath as Clint thumbed through the safety brochure.

"Hey, hey Bucky, so these cushions, they're supposed to work as a flotation device right? d'you think they actually work? because I don't think it would. I think they tell us about this and the masks 'cause they want us complacent. Then they give us dumb peanuts and in-flight entertainment to keep us even MORE complacent."

“That’s… that’s really interesting, Clint. But look… there’s something I need you to know…”

  
°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆  


“You did WHAT?!?”

Steve pulled the phone away from his ear. Honestly… Sam was reacting better than he thought he would.

“Let me get this straight, Steve. You have a pen pal who you’ve been writing to since the 5th grade, who you’ve been holding a torch for that entire time, by the way, and you’re telling me you’ve been lying to him the whole time?”

“Well, it’s not technically _lying_ … I never told him anything untrue...”

“You gave him pictures of me instead of you. That sounds pretty untrue to me. Bucky knows someone who doesn’t exist.”

“I exist! You exist!”

“Yeah, but your words and my face? He doesn’t.”

“Yeah, okay, I see your point.”

“Why did you send him pictures of me anyway?”

“Well, you know what I was like as a kid, I was short and skinny and sick all the time, so when it came time to send the first one I tried to find a good one and I did… of you. And then after that when I got healthier it was way too late to come clean, so I just… kept sending Bucky pictures of you. By the way, have I mentioned that I’m really really grateful we’re still best friends after all this time? And that it’s just one meeting? And I will owe you so so so much?”

Sam sighed on the other end of the line. “Fine. But I want your mom’s secret cookie recipe. That’s my price to do this for you.”

Steve almost jumped for joy in the middle of the street when Sam gave in. “Yes! Yes, it’s yours, I’ll bring it when I come down.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m amazing.”

 

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆

 

The flight from Chicago had landed before Bucky could tell Clint what he needed to say, and the other man was too excited about his free vacation (that Bucky was paying for) to slow down until they got to the hotel. Bucky took a moment to text Natasha that they made it safely and set up his laptop, while Clint flopped down face first onto one of the beds.

“Uh, hey, so… I need to tell you why I asked you to come on this trip.” Bucky got a thumbs up from his friend, face still buried in the pillow, so he continued. “So you know that I came for a work conference, but there’s something you don’t know. Well… I found out… Steve is going to be there.” That got a reaction from his friend, causing him to jolt up with a smile.

“Steve? Pen Pal Loverboy? That’s great!” Clint’s eager grin was making this harder on Bucky, so he turned away towards his laptop. “Wait. Are you going to bail on him? He knows you’re going to be there, so why not just get a coffee or something? You two’ve been writing each other for years, you finally get the chance to meet in the same city, and you’re going to chicken out. Why? He must know you better than anyone except for maybe Becca or your mom, but that’s because you grew up in the same house as them and they’ve both seen you naked and Steve hasn’t… yet,” Clint added with a wink. “I’m just saying. It wouldn’t be fair to him for you to just stand him up and leave him with only pictures of you.”

“Well, see, that’s the thing… He’ll be left with pictures of you.”

 

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, this is where it starts getting complicated.  
> I have the entire fic planned out, and my goal is to get it completed by Valentine's day (it is a holiday fic after all)  
> I love you guys and this story and I can't wait to keep going (but comments definitely help get chapters up faster.) <3

 

“It looks like the Grinch came through here,” Steve commented as he looked around Sam’s house.

“Yeah, well we can’t all be Mr. Holiday all the time,” Sam grumbled. Sam had never really got into the holidays as much as Steve, and he just got worse after Riley, Sam’s boyfriend who loved Christmas, died six years ago. Sam had healed… mostly, but the holidays always brought back bittersweet memories. “So where’s my cookie recipe? I want to be eating oatmeal scotchies like, yesterday.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it right here, hold your horses.” Steve reached into his bag and pulled out the laminated recipe, complete with beautiful hand drawn pictures of the cookies in the corners that Steve had drawn himself. He had memorized it years ago, so it was easy to write down when Sam asked for it. “You know, you’re the first non-family member to have that, I hope you treasure it.”

“Oh, I will. So tell me about this guy whose been sending you love notes for over a decade.”

“The- they’re not love notes!” Steve sputtered. “Bucky and I are just really close friends.”

“Yeah, close friends who have never called each other or exchanged numbers because of some pact you made 13 years ago, who you’ve also been pining for for nearly that long.”

“I…” Steve felt his face heat up as he blushed.

“So, come on, where’s he meeting me?”

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆

Clint supposed he could understand Bucky’s reasoning for sending Steve his picture instead of his own, he remembered how self conscious his friend was after the car accident that took his arm. Still, that didn’t make sense of why _Clint_ agreed to go along with it. He went over the cheat sheet on a notecard Bucky had given him, while waiting by the covered walkway near the convention center.

Okay, okay, nothing too complicated, he could work with this. Still, he called Bucky, who luckily answered on the first ring.

“ _Why_ am I doing this again? I don’t know the first thing about engineering!”

 

_“Well, for one, you’re my best friend, for another, I paid for you to come on this great trip and… and didn’t you tell me you wanted to be an actor once?”_

 

“Yeah, when we were kids, Bucky!”

 

_“Well, hey, that’s a childhood dream fulfilled, that’s something!”_

 

“I hope we’re good enough friends that you can just picture the glare I’m giving you right now.”

 

_“Okay, okay, fine. I’ll throw in an extra hundred dollars, and I’ll… do your laundry for a month, plus I’ll cut all of the onions for the latkes by myself.”_

 

 _“Fine._ But just this one time, do you hear me?”

 

“Bucky?” a new voice asked.

 

It took a moment for Clint to realize that the voice was probably talking to him, given this whole scheme, and as he looked up to find the person it belonged to, he was caught off guard. This Steve guy was unfairly attractive, expressive dark brown eyes, flawless rich brown skin and well trimmed facial hair. “Uh, yeah, so, I gotta go, Steve’s here. Talk to you later… mom. I love you.”

 

Clint hung up the phone and shoved it into his pocket before reached out a hand.  

“Uh, yeah, hi, that’s me, Bucky, I guess that makes you Steve, huh?” Clint smiled awkwardly. "Well, it's so good to see you after never seeing you." 

The two men shook hands before both hesitantly going in for a hug that lasted for about five seconds, and was probably the most awkward event of either man’s life.

 

“So, um. How was your flight from Chicago?” Steve asked when they pulled away, and Clint relaxed for a moment because this was a question he could answer.

 

“It was good, not too much turbulence, they ran out of pretzels though. Why do they serve pretzels instead of peanuts now, anyway?”

 

“Probably allergies? St-... _I_ had a lot of allergies as a kid, could have killed me, and with planes using recirculated air, that could lead to some nasty effects.”

 

Clint nodded, that made sense. “So… I guess we should head to the conference, right?” His face must have shown how little he wanted to, so he was grateful when Steve piped up.

 

“Or I could show you around D.C. if you want? Smithsonian and monuments and things?”

 

Clint frowned, confused. “But aren’t you from Brooklyn?”

 

This time it was Steve’s turn to be caught off guard. “Oh, yeah, but… my friend Sam lives here and I come to visit him a lot. He showed me locals places, and now I can show them to you.”

 

Well, that did make sense, and Clint _really_ didn’t want to go to the conference and spend more time with Mr. Hottiepants, so he would have jumped at anything.

 

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆

_“Uh, yeah, so, I gotta go, Steve’s here. Talk to you later… mom. I love you.”_

The line went dead, and Bucky groaned outside the conference hall. “He is going to think I am such an idiot.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thanks to [thedeafavenger](https://thedeafavenger.tumblr.com/) and [oberon-and-puck](https://oberon-and-puck.tumblr.com/) on tumblr for their help and support!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://nerdamongnerds.tumblr.com/) I'm always happy to hear from you!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the conference, things get even more complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the delay in this chapter, I had a bad bout of insomnia, writer's block, and depression this past week or so, so I had no motivation to keep writing, but, luckily, my friends are amazing and have my back and helped me pull through it.   
> So here it is!   
> Our boys meet in person at last!

Inside the conference hall, it was actually pretty nice, not that Bucky was surprised by that. Tony always went out of his way to plan these types of things well. He checked to make sure that everything was in order when he saw Tony coming to talk to him. He wasn't really sure how he became his boss's confidante, it just sort of happened. Tony had been really supportive in getting Bucky settled in America, even helped Clint and Natasha come over and find work too. After that, they had a couple lunches together, worked on a few projects together, especially improvements on Bucky's arm (Bucky had made the first prototype himself, that was what caught Tony's attention all the way from Russia, now Bucky was the unofficial tester for any new features on Stark Tech prostheses) and eventually, the two became friends, even though Tony was still Bucky’s boss.

“Did you see her? Is she here yet?” 

“She’s about to come in, don’t worry, you look fine.” Bucky smiled at Tony, gently adjusting his tie. It was new seeing his boss so nervous, but endearing. 

“Oh, I hope I’m not interrupting anything between you boys,” A woman’s voice said with a smile. 

“Pepper!” Tony said as he jolted and turned around with a wide smile and hugged the CEO from RSQ Enterprises. Their two companies were the biggest in the country, and therefore rivals, but Tony and Pepper had secretly been seeing each other for almost a year, and it had been going really well. 

“I’ll leave you two alone, then,” Bucky said as he walked away. 

“Thank you, James.”

“You’re welcome, Ms. Potts.”

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆

Steve walked around the conference, trying to find something that he could use for his story, but he kept getting distracted by thinking about what Sam was doing on the not-a-date. Luckily, he was still alert enough to able to find Tony Stark, and saw him talking to Pepper Potts. Well, that could be interesting. He clocked a man who had been talking to them walking away, distracted by looking at his phone, and Steve managed to oh-so-innocently bump into him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” The man said as he gave Steve an apologetic look, and Steve forgot how to speak for a moment.  _ Damn  _ he was attractive. Dark hair, pulled into a professional style, steel blue eyes, and… was that a metal hand sticking out of his left suit sleeve?  _ Focus, Steve, _ he thought to himself.

“It’s fine, I wasn’t looking where I was going. But did I see you talking to those two?” Steve gestured over to the CEOs. The man had a suspicious look growing on his face, but was interrupted when his phone rang, and it changed to one of anxious importance, apparently he had been expecting a call.

“Excuse me for just one second,” the man said as he took a few steps away and pulled his phone up to his ear. “Where the hell are you? You were supposed to be here already, Cl- oh, Scott, hi…. No, I was just expecting a call from someone else…. No, it’s nothing, what’s up? ... Yes, she’s here. …. Yes, she’s with Tony. … Yes, Scott, they’re already together, isn’t that what I just said?…. How am I supposed to separate them without making a scene? ... They’re both adults, I doubt they’re going to start making out in public.” Steve took a step closer to hear better. Business minded CEO Pepper Potts was involved with the genius playboy heir to Stark Industries? That  _ would  _ explain why Stark had been off the news radar for a while now... and if they had been keeping their relationship a secret, what else could they be hiding from people? Steve gave himself a small smile. Now he had his story. “…Yes, I know, … yes, I know about SEC regs… Yes I know, Scott, I’m not an idiot, and neither are they! Look, I’ll keep an eye on them, but I’m not going to do anything unless I need to. Okay, bye.” The man turned back to Steve. “Sorry about that, what were you saying?”

“Did you just say that those two were having an affair?”

The man’s eyes widened. “You… shouldn't have heard that. In fact, please,  _ please _ pretend that you didn’t. I’m sorry, I have to go.” And then he left Steve standing there in the middle of the hall, his grin growing. This was his chance.

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆

Bucky had managed to put out the few metaphorical fires that had popped up (and one literal one when a prototype overloaded the outlet it was plugged into), and he really just needed a break. Clint never showed up to the conference with Steve like he said he would, and that worried him, he walked up the stairs to the hallway where there was a private room with a couch he could crash on for a moment, when he heard a voice.

“No, Bruce, I’m telling you, there’s a big story here. Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. They’re seeing each other secretly. What if they’re sharing other things too? Trade secrets, financial strategies, who knows what else?”  Bucky walked up the steps and saw who was talking on his phone, and it was the hot blond guy from earlier. Dammit! He went behind him and tapped the man’s shoulder so he could turn around. At least the liar had enough character to look embarrassed about being caught. 

“So, you’re a reporter?” The blond didn’t say anything, still on the phone, but nodded sheepishly. “Fan-fucking-tastic.” Bucky didn’t give him a chance to say anything else, walking away in a huff to find Tony. It wasn’t difficult, Bucky knew where the bar was, and found Tony there mingling with some shareholders and other tech legends, already halfway to drunk.

“Mr. Stark, I was coming to find you-”

“Ah, here he is now! Gentlemen, ladies, this is Buckaroo, one of our top engineers. He designed that arm himself.”

“Yes, hello, but I need to talk to Mr. Stark privately,” Bucky waved at the group and put a hand on Tony’s back to walk him away, but Tony kept talking. 

“You know you’re amazing, right, Bucky? Your designs and tech really help us stand out. You know what? I think hiring you was one of the best corporate decisions I ever made.” Finally, they were out of earshot of everyone else, and Bucky was about to tell him about the mistake he had made.

“That’s, that’s really flattering, Tony, but I really don’t think I deserve that kind of praise, especially now, bec-”

“What? Of course you deserve that kind of praise! I don’t know what I would do without you, I heard about all the stuff you’ve been handling for me, and I’m really grateful. I just need you to watch out for one more thing. I heard that there were reporters here with regular attendee badges to try and find a story, so be careful what you say. Any negative publicity right now could destroy us, could jeopardize both of our companies, so keep an eye out.”

“Right… about that…”

“Pepper! There you are!” Tony lit up as he saw her go by and hurried over to her side, effectively ending the conversation.

“We’ll see you later, James,” Pepper said with a smile as Tony put an arm around her waist and walked away with her, just enough distance between the two that it still seemed professional. And that was when Bucky saw the blond again, jotting down notes as he tracked the couple down the hallway.

“This can’t be happening,” he muttered to himself as he got one of the biggest headaches of his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are love and help me keep up my motivation to write! 
> 
> Again, thanks to [thedeafavenger](https://thedeafavenger.tumblr.com/) and [oberon-and-puck](https://oberon-and-puck.tumblr.com/) on tumblr for their help and support!
> 
> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://nerdamongnerds.tumblr.com/) I'm always happy to hear from you!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's where it gets good folks

 

_ Well… all first dates are awkward,  _ Clint rationalized to himself as he sipped his eggnog latte, while Steve drank his juniper latte. They had both been sitting there silently for ten minutes, one or the other occasionally opening their mouth to try to start a conversation, but both ended up closing it moments later, until Clint got fed up. He glanced at his cheat sheet again. 

“So Steve. How’s your mom doing?”

That earned Clint a weird look. “Well… she’s the same as she’s been for the past few years…”

“You know, they have a lot of really cool technology now, you can just stick them in and she’ll be good as new?”

The weird look continued. “Yeah… I don’t think that it works like that.”

“I mean, maybe not good as new, but it would definitely be easier to talk to her, right?”

“.... Um. No, I don’t think it would be.”

Okay, something was up. “I… I need to go to the bathroom.”

Clint hurried into the bathroom and pulled out his sheet, talking to himself as he did it. “What happened? It says right here… ‘don’t ask about his dad, from  B rooklyn, no siblings, grew up with his mom, deaf… wait, what's that?”

He noticed the smudge on the side of the paper. He rubbed it off and tasted it. It was a bit of the chocolate he was eating when Bucky gave it to him. Then he saw the last letter. It wasn’t an F… it was a D. His mom was dead. Oh, this was just great.

Sam, for his part was rereading the texts Steve sent him while his date was in the bathroom. 

_ Born in NY, moved to Russia at 7 with mom and little sister _

_ Sister’s name is Becca, goes by Bex. Recently went off to school in London. They’re close.  _

_ Works in engineering for Stark Industries, working on prosthetic limbs _

_ Jewish, not particularly observant _

_ Text me if you need anything more _

He turned the screen off as Bucky came back from the bathroom. “I was getting worried about you,” he said jokingly as the blond sat back down. “So, uh… how are you doing since Bex left?”

It was Bucky’s turn to get a strange look on his face, like he couldn’t place who he was asking about, but it only lasted a moment. “Oh… Bex. Yeah, I miss ‘em, but you want to know something? Not that great in bed.”

Sam choked on his drink.

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆

“So? How did it go?” Steve jumped on Sam as soon as he walked in the door. He had a good day at the conference, save that one guy finding out he was a reporter, but the meeting was on his mind the whole time.

“It was… really awkward at first, but then it got better. We started talking about each other, but it wasn’t good, but then there was a funny commercial on the tv that we both laughed at and we just started joking and talking about all kinds of other things. He’s…” Sam smiled fondly. “He’s a really good guy.”

Steve was glad that date ended up going well, but something in his gut twinged at seeing the smile his best friend had about Bucky.  _ Steve’s  _ Bucky.

“... So we’re going to meet up at about 7 tomorrow,” Sam finished his sentence that Steve had accidently tuned out.  

“You’re going to see him again?”

“Yeah, tomorrow, I just said that. We’re going ice skating and going to see a movie.” Sam paused. “Is that cool with you?”

“Yeah, yeah… I mean. Why wouldn’t it be?”

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆

Bucky was not crazy. He wasn’t. Definitely not. Though, as sure as he was about that fact, he still found himself hiding in the back of a movie theater watching his best friend and pen pal on a date with each other. He wished he had kept his chill a little better when Clint told him he was going to see Steve again, but in his defense, he had a terrible day. He wasn’t able to find that reporter again to ask him to not print the story. And...it was  _ Steve _ . And  _ Clint.  _ Bucky cringed again just thinking about when Clint got home and asked him when he had dated a guy named Beck. So yeah. He just needed to… keep an eye on things. Nothing wrong with that. Even though Clint seemed to be getting into his role a little too much. Did he really need to be looking at Steve like that? And what was with the holding hands in the dark theater? Wait. Wait. What was Clint doing? Oh no. Wait. Why was Steve going along with it??? All Bucky could do was sit back and watch it happen as the two of them kissed in front of him.

°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆*°☆

Steve’s face was as red as his sweater, though no one could see him in the the darkness of the theater. So yeah, maybe he did follow Sam to see how things were going, but that didn’t give Sam a right to kiss him! Steve was his best friend! How could Sam do that to his best friend? He needed to get out of there. Luckily, he was in a far back corner and the theater was relatively empty except for the couple and two or three other people, and Sam and Bucky wouldn’t see him. Not like it would have mattered, what with the way they were lip locking, Steve bet that an earthquake couldn’t separate them right now. He stormed down the stairs and outside the theater and the building itself to breathe. After a moment, someone walked past him that he recognized. The guy from the conference, the hot one with the long hair and metal arm. Well, at least he could make some good out of this disaster of a night. 

“Hey, hey!”

The man turned and groaned as he saw Steve. “I… really don’t need this right now.”

“I just want to ask you a few questions about Stark and RSQ. Is there a merger going on? Insider trading?”

“No, no, no! There’s nothing! Look. I’ve had…” The door opened as the movie let out and Steve pushed him into a shadow as he realized that Sam and Bucky were coming out of the theater. He really didn’t need Sam to know he followed him. And he  _ definitely _ didn’t want to meet Bucky in person for the first time like this. The couple walked away, not noticing the two men, and Steve stared forlornly after them, talking to himself.

“Look at them. He doesn’t… he doesn’t even know him. You… you’d think after 15 years, he’d know it wasn’t me. I mean, I can’t blame Buck, but Sam…” He sighed and realized the other man was still there, staring at Steve wordlessly. “I’m sorry about this, tragic story, sad day, blah blah blah. I’m Steve. Steve Rogers, and I’m not normally this dramatic.” Steve offered him his hand and a small smile in greeting.

The other man closed his mouth and shook it with the biggest most genuine smile Steve had seen from him yet, and it lit up his steel blue eyes, making him look even more attractive. “St-Steve. It’s… It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Really? No one ever really says that to people in my profession. But I never got your name.”

The man looked surprised, the light in his eyes being replaced with sudden worry. “Right! My name! You gave me yours, of course you would want mine…” he began to babble.

“Yeah, well. It does help to facilitate conversation.”

“Right, yeah, of course. My name.  My name is…” The man looked in the direction Sam and Bucky had gone. “Clint! My name is Clint.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks as always to [thedeafavenger](https://thedeafavenger.tumblr.com/) for their great support and beta work on this chapter
> 
> And I know tumblr has been a garbage fire more than usual since I last posted, but I'm still there and still at tumblr [here](https://nerdamongnerds.tumblr.com/)   
> Happy holidays everyone!


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